St. Louis leaders of government, healthcare and business share a sense of urgency in stopping new infections and saving lives, said Dr. Alex Garza, chief medical office of SSM Health.
“If we rush to reopen without important safeguards like testing and contact tracing, the virus will spread and hit us harder than it has so far,” Garza said. “We also know that the impact of the economic crisis is devastating as well. Balance in a thoughtful, coordinated approach across our region will be key to this complicated challenge.”
Garza is the incident commander for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. The task force includes four major health care systems: BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St Luke’s Hospital.
Every day, Garza gives a briefing on the task force’s COVID-19 statistics that represent 2.8 million people for an area that encompasses surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois in the larger St. Louis region.
On Monday, April 27, inpatient hospitalizations are slightly higher from yesterday — from 652 on Sunday to 690 on Monday. The number of patients in the intensive care units has decreased — from 162 Sunday to 154 on Monday. The number of patients on ventilators has decreased slightly — from 115 on Sunday to 109 on Monday. Across the system hospitals, 15 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 1,117.
Despite all of the progress in flattening the curve, Garza said there are still 50 percent more people in the hospital because of the virus than there were on April 5, when Garza started giving the briefings. The St. Louis region has not yet seen a sustained decline in the number of hospitalizations.
Dr. Garza gives daily briefings on the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force Facebook page at 3:30 p.m.
